Coming Clean
by xoxoLee
Summary: Contest fic. A brief look into the changes that five relationships go through on the same rainy night.


**1.**

She was sitting on the hotel bed, staring straight ahead at the paint chipped white wall. Her hands rested on her face to cool her cheeks and catch her flooding mascara. His shadow was on the wall, standing beside her in silence as it watched her tears. "Trish." Soft yet stern came his voice from the doorway. It was the first time he had spoken since she stormed away from him in the parking lot. She wiped at her cheeks and turned to look at him. The silence between them had ravaged her face within a handful of minutes.

_Time ain't nothing but time  
It's a verse with no rhyme  
Man, it all comes down to you_

"Leave."

That was all it took for Carlito's heart to go heavy. If he could close his eyes and smile, thinking back to the days where they walked hand in hand and laughed, he would have. Trish was looking through him, and it hurt to think of happiness when she was in so much pain. She was tough out of necessity. Life had handed her bad deals before and this was one of them. It wasn't going to bring her down though. And Carlito accepted her reaction as what it was, her decision.

"Don't listen to other people. You know that you have all the answers that you need to tell fact from fiction." Carlito sighed. He wasn't getting anything from her. Trish stood up from the bed, her hands on her hips, prepared to firmly back up what she had said to him before. She didn't have to go that far though. It was enough to get the message across to him.

"You know that I'm sorry. The last thing I want to do is hurt you."

Then he was gone. At least until the phone rang, he was. The roads had been slick from the rain that drenched the city, and he crashed his car into a wall. That night, Trish stayed up wondering if it was foolish of her to let him back into her life until the next time he broke her heart. What was new?

That night marked the fourth._  
_

**2.**

"I'm not pouring you another drink."

If someone had told Stephanie McMahon that an angry and emotional friend would be sleeping in her spare bedroom, she wouldn't have found it odd. Life had changed for her now that she was single, and the life that she led often included her dramatic friends coming to her with their problems. Everyone seemed to being falling out with their significant others it seemed.

Stephanie was still the trendsetter she was in high school.

Surprisingly to some, Stephanie was a good friend. When people needed her she was always there, whether it was an old friend, a new friend, an ex-boyfriend or even an ex-husband. The man that was sitting on her couch, however, was none of the above. To be honest, she didn't even like him. How he got her address, she had no clue, but she wasn't going to leave him to wander in the rain.

_Change ain't nothing but change  
Just the faces and the names  
But you know we're gonna make it through_

"Just one more. You can put ice in it."

"Eric, since you've been here you've had five drinks, and you came to my house drunk off your ass. I'm not pouring you another drink so relax and shut up. You're going to wake the baby up if you don't stop talking so loud."

Eric looked as though he had been on a stranded island since the last time she had seen him. His hair was unkempt, and his face looked like it hadn't been shaved in months. His suit was sloppily thrown on, one sleeve cuffed, the other loose, and his shirt was buttoned all wrong. The man was a wreck, so much so that even Stephanie was beginning to feel bad for him.

He had fallen from grace one too many times.

I'll believe  
When you don't believe in anything

**3.**

The rain was depressing, or perhaps it was just her. Mickie couldn't tell as she sat at the hotel bar watching the rain beat against the window. She sipped at the last of her Long Island Ice Tea, shaking the glass to hear the confirmation that was the ice clinking together. "Bartender," she yelled, suddenly angry. "Bartender," she shouted once again, this time slapping her hand against the counter impatiently, attempting to catch his attention.

"Hey, I think the lady really wants a drink. She doesn't need one but I think she wants one anyway."

Mickie's eyes narrowed as she turned to look at the man who had spoken. The same man that had just sat down beside her, unwelcome. "Excuse me, but will you move? It's an empty bar. Go find some place else to sit." The anger coming from the small woman was amazing to him. No one could accuse this girl of being shy, he thought to himself as he watched her hateful face.

"I figured you'd want some company, Mickie. That's your name, right?" Mickie continued to glare at him. He took that to mean that he was correct. "You know, you're a cute girl. Cut out all that evil shit and you'll have some friends that aren't in your head. You probably shouldn't attack everyone you know." The bartended returned, grabbing her empty glass and replacing it with the same drink she had been requesting all night.

"Aren't you the guy that didn't help Lillian when she got hurt? Just because she didn't love you…"

"What do you know about love?"

"I know that love hurts. I know that people can't return love for whatever selfish reason they have. The only person that you should love is yourself. You can't hurt yourself."

"That's what you're doing right now."

_  
I'm gonna hold you 'til your hurt is gone  
Be the shoulder that you're leaning on_

**4.**

"No crying. You promised, remember?" There was no looking past the beautiful brunette woman with tears wreaking havoc on her face. The two stood alone on the sidewalk, the trunk to car open but otherwise abandoned. From the onlookers in the building it looked like the clean up of a car accident, but then again, they wondered if it was just the rain.

_I'll be standing here  
For the next 100 years_

She never needed to wear all the make-up that she did, especially when it just ran down her face for all to see. But his girl was tough, there was no doubt about that. Every tear that streaked black mascara was a battle scar for her to show when someone doubted her. She was real. This was real. And if she ever needed proof, ever needed to remember it, she could look in the mirror and run her fingers over her cheeks.

"It's the rain." They both laughed in their awkward embrace. He was wiping her tears with his thumbs, further smearing her make-up in the process, and she was sniffling and touching her face to shield herself from the embarrassment. They could laugh because they had to. There were too many things to be sad about, and there was no point in emotion if you couldn't appreciate the good in it.

_If it all should end tonight  
I'll know it was worth the fight  
And we'll be standing here  
For the next 100 years_

"Candice, I'm coming back. Don't even think that I'm leaving you like this."

As much as she wanted to tell herself that she wasn't going to cry, she cried even harder as she thought about what was happening. It was only temporary, the distance between them, or she was only temporary. Candice had a habit of thinking of the worst. He always told her to stop thinking like that, but it was hard for her. Every second that he spent with that horrible woman rubbed her wrong. She only needed a second to strangle the life out of him.

"Don't even worry about Melina. She'll understand. Even she knows we're drifting apart."

I, when I think that I'm losing my mind  
It all comes back to you

**5.**

A drop of rain the size of a gumdrop fell on the windshield of Brian Kendrick's car. The sky was already a dark and gloomy gray, but the two people in the car hadn't noticed anything. They were in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant, her request, both taking their time as not to say goodbye. It was the worst part of every meeting for them. Why it was like that, he didn't know, but it always ended in goodbye.

"Ash," he said, pulling her head from the clouds as she rested her head on his shoulder. Her bright blue eyes connected with his, making it just another reason for him to smile. It was hard to do anything else around her. "Stay with me tonight." His smile faded in the same time that her head raised. That always meant the same thing. No.

_And you, you know that it's true  
After all we've been through  
There's nothing that I wouldn't do_

"You know I love you…" Ashley's voice trailed as the excuses in her head flashed in her mind, but he had heard it all before. She loved him but it wasn't the right time for anything to happen. They worked together, she always said, and she couldn't break her boyfriend's heart by telling him the truth. She didn't want to crush him like he was crushed before. But what about Brian?

"I don't know that."

Ashley hadn't expected him to do anything other than what he normally did: frown and tell her that they had to be honest. This time he was questioning her intentions as though she was deceiving him. Brian opened the car door and stepped out into the pouring rain as Ashley, along with everyone else in the parking lot, watched.

Brian stood in the middle of the entranceway, blocking any arriving cars from getting further without running him over. Ashley didn't even want to guess what he was doing, she just knew that she wasn't leaving him out there alone. "Brian?" She yelled, running toward him the best that she could in her heels.

She didn't even care that the water splashed her as she ran.

_Stand by me  
And I would gladly give up everything_

"Tell me, right here," he shouted to her, causing her to slow down until she stopped three feet away from him. Ashley crossed her arms to help withstand the cold, her face scrunching up with confusion. "Tell you what?" She was beginning to think that he was going crazy. All she wanted was for them to be inside, away from the chorus of honking horns and away from the nearly blinding rain.

"Tell me like you mean it. Tell me that you love me."

Ashley didn't know what to say or do other than what came natural to her.

First it was a laugh, followed by a grin, and then it was her yelling back to him.

"I love you, Brian Kendrick. I really love you."

I'm gonna hold you 'til your hurt is gone  
Be the shoulder that you're leaning on  
I'll be standing here  
For the next 100 years

If it all should end tonight  
I'll know it was worth the fight  
And we'll be standing here  
For the next 100 years


End file.
